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\n Published on
\n 02\/04\/2026 – 12:25 GMT+2\n <\/p>\n
Germany has revealed plans to set up a body to repatriate artworks and artifacts, and human remains acquired in a colonial context.<\/p>\n
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The anticipated ‘Coordination Council for Returns of Cultural Property and Human Remains from Colonial Contexts’ will include representatives from the central government, the country’s 16 states, and various municipalities. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe aim is to make returns processes as transparent as possible and to coordinate communication with international partners,\u201d reads the statement released by the German Federal Foreign Office. The statement follows a top-level meeting held in Berlin last week.<\/p>\n
Owing to an agreement between German states and the central government in 2019, the country began active efforts to repatriate artifacts in public collections taken illegally in a colonial context. <\/p>\n
Recently, countries such as Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana, and Togo, have set up return committees that are communicating with Germany for the return of varying artifacts to their homelands.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Annalena Baerbock, the German Foreign Minister at the time visited Nigeria to return the first 20 Benin bronzes \u2014 a group of sculptures native to Nigeria that include decorated plaques, commemorative heads, and personal ornaments, among others \u2014 from five German collections. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are taking a long overdue step. It will not heal all the wounds of the past,\u201d Baerbock said, regarding the return of the bronzes in 2022. \u201cBut together with the L\u00e4nder, cities and museums we are showing that Germany is taking seriously its efforts to address its dark colonial history.\u201d <\/p>\n